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Haberman discusses POLITICO Bloomberg interview

So pronounced New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg in a free-ranging POLITICO interview in his bullpen-style office at City Hall recently. He held forth on his efforts to move the dial on guns, immigration and gay marriage — an issue on which he lavished praise, in his unique rhetorical way, on the vice president.

“You know, Joe Biden — you can joke about him all you want, [but] he’s got a set of balls, and he says what he believes,” Bloomberg said. “And he forced the focus [on gay marriage].”

He added sardonically: “I’m sure the president was evolving and was about to do it anyways. But Biden deserves the credit. He should be the hero of the pro-gay marriage community.”

It was high praise from Bloomberg, who’s never been one to feign political politesse.

He also said Obama should have dealt with gay marriage during his first year in office, instead of waiting.

“I’m a big believer in, you need time to fix it or let the public become convinced it’s a good idea, or to cancel it and get over the damage before your next election,” he said. “If you wait, it invariably comes up at the wrong time, aka gay marriage. Would have been better off [doing it on] Day One.”

The billionaire businessman-turned-politician is finishing his final year in office, after a maneuver to extend term limits so he could run again in 2009 angered voters – but not enough to throw him out of office.

Over the past two years, Bloomberg has become more engaged in issues with national impact and expanded an already-full portfolio but that also relate to some of New York City’s more pressing concerns. Gun control tops the list.

“The question, really, is has the public changed its views and will they keep focused? We have a very short attention span in America,” Bloomberg said of the focus on guns in the wake of the Sandy Hook school massacre.